


Kitty Conundrum

by MorganWolf



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: An angry meowing ball of terror, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-02-24 01:12:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13202523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorganWolf/pseuds/MorganWolf
Summary: Vladdie pisses off the wrong people, and Caine has to go rescue him, again.  But not without some major interference from a feline ball of fury





	1. The Furious Furball

**Author's Note:**

> Got this idea from a comment on 'Christmas Caine'. Kinda went a bit sideways, but anyhow .... lol
> 
> Inspiration Board developing at - https://www.pinterest.com.au/morganwolf078/kitty-conundrum/
> 
> *side note - my auto-correct had a melt-down on this one bahahaha!!!

_MrrAAAAOOOOOWWWWW!!!! Rrrraaaaooooooooowwww!! raaaow raow! Mraow! marooow, no no no! no! MARRRRROOOWWWWW!!!!!!!_

 

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!!” Caine hissed quietly at the offended feline. “Shut up already and get lost!” _MrrAAAoooWW raaaow raaow HISSSSSS_ S!!! *kitty swats long dirty claws at Caine* “Owww! Shhh! Seriously!!!” Caine hissed again at the kitten. He heard a glass bottle accidentally get kicked over the kerb by the people he was hunting. As the moggy went to scratch Caine for invading its’ territory again, Caine growled menacingly and snapped his teeth at it. _RRAAAAOOOOWWWW-AARRROOOWW!_ *Kitty takes a huge swipe at Caines’ face, leaving three long scratches across his cheek*   Caine swore horribly at the animal, and it finally gave up its’ tirade, stalking off into the trash littered alley that Caine was hiding in.

“What was that?” asked the short, scrawny, twenty-something guy. “Jus wunna ‘em mungrel fee-bittn cuts. ‘Nore em! Buss’s waitan, les go a’eddy!” drawled a heavily built, bald man. “Yeah,” the young man replied. “This place is giving me the creeps.” “Hrumph!  Schickn!” The young man shivered and walked off down the alley, the bald guy following.  Caine groaned once the men were out of ear-shot, and rubbed his hand over his cheek. Looking at it, he saw his hand was covered in blood from the scratches. “Stupid _(Insert unprintable Legion swear-words here)_ cats. Hope I never see that thing again.” muttered Caine grumpily.

 He pulled a tiny device out of one of the many pockets in his jacket and waved it over his hand. It cleaned his hand, but as he went to wave it over his face, it crackled and sparked, then went dead. “Ugh, what next!” he groaned. Caine turned from his crouching position behind the smelly dumpster and sat down cross-legged. Suddenly the black, and stinky, kitten threw itself at his chest and tried to sink its not-so-tiny teeth into Caine’s face. He made a quick grab for the scruff of it’s neck and managed to tear it off himself before it could do any more damage to him.

“Seriously! What is your problem?” he growled at it. The angry, soggy creature let off a tirade of meows and hisses at Caine’s question, clawed feet trying desperately to reach Caine to make him let go, before it finally gave up and hung limp in his grip. “And don’t look at me in that tone of voice either.” Caine added. “I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to be either. But _Her Majesty_ asked me to do this. So here I am.” As Caine said _Your Majesty_ , the kitten’s expression turned from one of fury at the space-angel-werewolf-soldier holding it up, to one of curiosity. “ _Her Majesty?_ ”  Caine asked of the kitten. It mewed. Caine snorted and put the wet furball on the ground, but warned it before letting go of her “Don’t even think about it feline. I am NOT taking you to her.” The kitten hissed at him, but stalked off into piles of boxes, eyeing Caine as if to say, _‘We’ll see about that wolfie!’_

Caine shook his head and pocket the broken healing device. Maybe he could get it fixed or replaced when he got home to her. Caine sighed at the thought of holding her in his arms, her scent filling his nose as he nuzzles it against her neck. “Snap out of it. Got work to do.” He said to himself, shaking the pleasant image from his head. Her, admittedly annoying, cousin Vladdie had been kidnapped a week ago by bounty hunters from the Carina Draconis Star System. Caine suspected a planet called Tuvis was where they were keeping Jupiters’ cousin. It was notorious in the law enforcement circles as a dumping ground for thieves, bounty hunters and other criminal scum from the system. It was notorious because it was severely under-guarded. Not a month seemed to go by without at least one escape attempt being made, usually successfully. The planet, Caine had been informed, was a warren of tunnels below surface, boiling seas and frozen wastelands above ground.

Apparently the Entitled who thought to dump the criminals there, thought that they would not have to worry about anyone living, let alone escaping. Apparently, they were wrong, Caine thought to himself. Any idiot with half a working brain cell would be able to work out the minimal rotation of the planet, find the best place to guide a small cruiser down between the massive mountain ranges and into one of the (now) many ports on the surface.

Most of the ports had been fitted with shielding systems and weaponry. Trade in and out of the penal colony planet had been booming, according to the shief he had read. Most of the guards were on the payroll of the Dons, and there seemed to be little that the Aegis could do about it at that point in time. Orous was a bureaucratic nightmare, and the Aegis’ hands were tied for the moment.

So Caine was sent on a solo mission to recover Jupiters’ wayward cousin. Actually, Caine volunteered for the job, almost begged Her Majesty for it. Stinger tried to talk him out of it, to let someone less important to Her Majesty, (i.e. Stinger (so Stinger thought)), to take the task on, but Caine threatened to hog-tie him and dump him into the hands of the lady bee-keeper a few miles up the road from his place.

Naturally, Stinger went bright-red in the face, and muttered expletives under his breath at Caine. Caine could hear him, but was thankful that Jupiters’ hearing was nowhere near as enhanced as his and Stingers. As it was, Kiza came out of the kitchen with a tray of coffee cups and baklavas, and buzzed furiously at her father. Stinger gave in, and Caine got what he wanted. Much to Jupiters’ amusement. Now, sitting in the trash-strewn alley as it started raining again, he was starting to regret his decision. “Better go, before their scents weaken.” Caine mumbled to himself as he stood up to leave his hiding spot. He heard a muted marrooowing from a nearby cardboard box, and snapped “Stay!” at it, before switching the tracking device on again. “Thanks for the goods Stinger. Makes this a lot easier.” He said quietly to himself, then set off after the men again.

 

 


	2. Stalking the Stalker

The two men had disappeared around the corner, and Caine contemplated flying to catch up with them. Looking up, however, he quickly dismissed the idea. The narrow alley was bad enough at ground level with rancid trash piles, abandoned bikes, and old boxes and moldy rugs. Over his head were multitudes of cables crisscrossing the alley-way, some with dirty clothes attached, and long metal staircases in various degrees of usefulness. This alley wasn't brightly lit like the ones on the other side of the street, but he would still be seen if he flew. So he sighed and lit up his anti-grav boots instead. Caine loved his boots, almost as much as he did Stinger and Kiza, but nothing beat the feeling of freedom as he soared through the air. Caine tracked the pungent scent of the bald man down several blocks before entering an abandoned underground rail station. He recalled fleetingly that on Jupiter's planet, Earth, they had places like this, called subways.

This one had been long abandoned. The first underground level, while brightly lit, was flooded several inches in water. Long thin vines of Passiflora caerulea draped down the walls, not fruiting at this stage of the yearly cycle. Ferns and lichen were growing in the water, on the once beautiful, now rotting timber sitting-benches, and up the rusting escalator. Nature reclaiming the building, Caine thought to himself. He skated expertly over the murky floor, passing through several corridors and down into a huge, dark tunnel. Caines eyesight was good, but his nose was better. He could strongly smell the two men ahead of him, and only just see the their light from their torches. He switched off his boots. The blue light from them was too bright for the darkness surrounding him, and would easily give him away if either one of the criminals thought to look behind them.

The minimal airflow through the tunnels shifted momentarily, and Caine thought he caught a scent of the wet cat that assaulted him back in the trash-strewn alley. He shook his head to rid himself of the thought. Why would a cat follow  _him?_   The light ahead of him faded, and Caine decided to risk the chance of being caught, and lit up his boots and surf down the tunnel. Anything could be strewn on the floor here, and Caine did not want to take the chance of injuring himself. As he was about to move forward, the smelly, and still wet, black kitten launched itself at the back of Caine's thigh, and dug her claws through his padded Legion jeans and into his leg. For a few painful moments, the pair flipped and tumbled and summersaulted madly in midair, neither making any sound as if they both did not want to get caught by anyone.

After what seemed like hours, Caine finally managed to extract the felines claws from his leg. He held it out at arms length, again, then quickly looked up and down the tunnel. Behind him was a small round hole in the roof of the tunnel, and he skated them out of it, into a long, high walled concrete room. There was on old chaise at the end of the stone-strewn floor, covered in soft green moss. A few trees had grown up through the stones, along with creeping vines, reaching toward the partially open roof. There was enough room to open his wings, and Caine flew to the moss-covered seat quickly, kitten still moodily dangling from his grip by the scruff of its neck. 

He plonked the fuzzball on the tattered furniture, drew and aimed his mauler at it in disgust. “Stay!” he growled at her. The kitten sat back on its haunches and gave Caine the filthiest look it could muster. Caine bared his fangs at her, so she threw him a contemptuous look then proceeded to groom her front paws. Caine shook his head and holstered the Mauler. “I’ve got enough to deal with here, without you getting in my way. I catch you following me again and I’ll feed you to the Zarflongs.” The kitten flicked an ear, but continued grooming herself, essentially ignoring Caine. He growled angrily and she eyeballed him, still cleaning mud from her paw. “Stay!” he growled again. Snapping his wings, he turned and gracefully lifted off, heading back toward the opening in the floor. Just before he dipped into the hole, he saw the kitten studying him. _‘Great’,_ he thought. _‘It’s gonna follow me again. Bloody felines.’_


	3. Continuing

The tunnel was dark and devoid of movement and scent of his quarry. Caine cursed and took his night vision glasses from a pocket in his jacket. They were a modified version of Earths goggles that Jupiter had given him, just in case. Even with his enhanced hearing and sight, he didn’t think he’d ever need them. But they were a gift from his Queen, and he cherished them. Caine put the glasses on, surprised that they actually helped him see better, then flew as far as he dared. The tunnel narrowed and turned several times before flying became too hazardous. He furled his wings and dropped carefully to the ground, continuing ahead on foot. The scent of the men he was chasing wasn’t anywhere around him, so Caine decided to backtrack. Maybe he had missed something.

Eventually, Caine found an opening in the side of the tunnel, barely visible behind a pile of garbage and old furniture and old canisters. Remnants of human and splice scents clung to the refuse. And finally, a waft of scent from the fat bald man.  He followed it through a short passageway that ended on a rusty metal landing bolted onto the side of a deep concrete-sided shaft. Looking down, he saw that a metal spiral staircase disappeared into the dark below him. Above, it led up to a landing with several doorways. Above that, rough-hewn rock with ruins of building walls jutting out from it, and long vines draping over the ledge.

The sky showed pre-dawn above it all and Caines stomach grumbled loudly in the silence. ‘ _Breakfast will have to wait, again.’_ thought Caine. ‘ _Need to find those….’_ A faint breeze stirred out of the passageway behind him. _‘Are you serious! What is that things problem?!’_ Caine turned, but the kitten was no where in sight. Growling, Caine turned and headed up the stairs and along the landing. He scented the air, but it was stale and cold. The men had not lingered here. Caines stomach rumbled again. Finally giving in, he quickly checked through the area before returning to one of the empty rooms.  


There nothing more in the space than crumbled rocks and debris, an old rats nest and old rotted bench. “Home sweet home.” He muttered wearily. “At least it’s dry.”  Caine quickly set himself up for the day. He’d been awake for nearly 5 days straight, and not eaten much. “Rations for now. Gotta pick up something better soon.” He said to himself. “And check in.” Tapping on his neck com, he quickly filed a report update for later sending. “Out of range.” he sighed, tapping the link again to end the report. “Hope Her Majesty is ok.”

Caine finished the dry pack quickly, along with one of the chocolate bars that he assumed Jupiter had stashed in his pack. It was a welcome reminder of her. Her scent lingered faintly on the wrapper and Caine would have curled up around it, but the metallic scent of the foil was distasteful to him. The sooner he found her pain in the arse cousin and got him home, again, the sooner he could breathe in her warm scent. His mind numbed as he thought of pressing his nose up against her neck, breathing in as much of her as he could. The joyous scent of _her_ , like warm summer days, of peace and belonging, of being _loved_ , was sometimes almost too much for him to bear.

Caine shook his head to clear his thoughts. “Not the time or place.” He muttered. Caine grabbed his pack and pulled out a thin mesh with a metallic shimmer to it and draped it over top of the bench. The material flowed unnaturally over the structure and began taking on the shape and colours of its surrounds. “Legion standard camo netting. Good for hiding stuff and keeping out bugs.” Caine crawled under the net and put his pack at one end, to use as a pillow. He quickly swept a patch clean under the bench and laid down for a few hours rest. The men could wait. He would find them soon enough. After all, he _had_ found Her Majesty.


	4. Caine Interrupted

_A cool breeze swept across the ripe fields of corn and carried the scent of the afternoon storm slowly coming their way. Goosebumps patterned the warm skin on her thigh, until he smoothed them beneath his hot hand. The skirt of her light summer dress flicked up in the breeze, showing of the curve of her hip. The clouds passing by overhead dappled patterns across the bright yellow daisies on the white fabric. Birds twittered in the old tree above them, bees buzzed amongst the flowers in Stingers garden, and somewhere far above it all, and Aegis Cruiser and Her Majesties’ Royal War Fleet orbited the Earth._

_But for the moment, he didn’t care. He was where he wanted to be, safe and happy, and muzzle deep between Jupiters legs. Her body spasmed again as she ground against his face. His tongue flitting into her, his nose rubbing against the lightly hooded node, her juices dripping down his scruffy chin. Her fingers twisted into his soft blonde hair, pulling his face into her as she writhed in pleasure against it._

_“Oh fuck! Caine! That’s so good!” she moaned as he inserted two fingers gently into her wet folds and rubbed them against her hot spot. “Your Majesty...” he growled softly against her clit. “Oh stars, I’m gonna cum again! Oh fuck!” Her fingers tightened in his hair and his senses were almost overwhelmed as she came again on his face. “Ah Caine! Caaai_ rrrrRRRRROOOWWWWW _”_

Caine would have hit his head on the bench he had been sleeping under if it wasn’t for a large, angry-looking cat sitting on his chest. “What the fuck?!” he snapped at it. His cheek stung when a sharp claw raked across it. “Stalin’s balls! What the ……..??!” he started to snap, but a large paw shot up and covered his mouth, and its’ owners head turned to look out the dark entrance to the room they were in. Caine eyed the doorway, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. An ear flicked back towards him and the paw removed itself from his mouth.

The creature slunk off his chest and out from under the camo net towards the door. Caine went automatically for his mauler, but his gun-hand was lodged down his jeans, and sticky _. ‘What the fuck?! Oh yeah, Jupiter….._ ’ he sighed and quickly cleaned himself up. Grabbing his pack, he dragged the netting into it, slung it over his back and crept up behind the animal at the doorway. He noticed that it looked exactly like the kitten that had been following him, only it was several times larger. They were the eye to eye when Caine crouched down next to it. He tilted his head, looking at it and it gave him a withering look before turning its attention to the spiral stairs.

Voices could be heard coming up the concrete shaft. ‘Crap, it’s them.’ Caine thought. ‘Hang on a sec ….’ Three scents wafted up towards them. The bald fat man, the skinny runt, and Jupiters cousin Vladdie. The cat next to him fluffed itself out and stalked out stiffly towards the stairs as the trio reached the top. _“Rrrrrraaaaaoooooowwwwwwww!”_ it hissed at them. “What the fuck!!” yelled Vladdie, nearly falling back on the fat man. The scrawny young guy pointed his weapon at the cat as it arched its’ back and hissed and spat angrily. “Bloody sewer cat!” he snarked, firing at it. The cat bounded to the right and hissed at the him. “Stay still, flee-bitten mongrel!” he snapped. “ _MrrAAAoooWW raaaow raaow no no no no no!”_ The cat advanced on the trio, leaping claws-out at the young man. As she sunk her claws into his face, Vladdie fainted. Caine snorted in disgust and stepped out of the doorway, fired a shot at the confused fat man looking down at Vladdie, then shot the other in the leg. The cat leapt nimbly away as the man screamed in pain and dropped to the rocky floor.

“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I’ll do whatever you want!!” screamed Vladdie as Caine picked him up by the collar of his stained flannel shirt. “Oh crap, it’s you!” “Again,” growled Caine. “Hey, hey, look man! I’m really sorry! I’ll never do it again. I promise! I swear! No more scams, from now on! I’ll stay on Earth forever!” Vladdie begged. Caine dragged him over the the rusted railing on the ledge and shoved him against it. The rail groaned and threatened to break off as Vladdie tried to push himself away from the edge, his face white as a ghost as he looked terrified into the darkness below. “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!!” he screamed. “Please! Have mercy!! I swear on my Mothers life I’ll never do anything bad ever again! Just don’t kill me! Please Caine! I swear!’ he cried miserably.

The cat behind them sneezed, and Caine glanced back at it quick enough to see it rolling its eyes. He knew that Vladdie was half telling the truth, and apparently even the cat didn’t believe him. But Jupiter made Caine promise not to harm Vladdie, maybe shake him up a bit. But essentially bring the twit home unharmed, if possible. Caine pulled Vladdie back from the edge and turned him around. “This is the last time I’m going to drag your sorry arse back to Earth.” He growled at Vladdie. “Next time, Her Majesty will leave you to the filth you dredge up.” “Ok, ok man. I swear! Never again! Promise!” Vladdie tried to plead, hands up in front of him. “I’ll do whatever you say.”

Caine growled at him again and turned to the injured man on the ground. The cat was sitting behind the weapon that the guy dropped, almost daring him to try to grab it. Caine snorted, amused, and punched a code into the brace on his arm. “Go.” Caine said to Vladdie, pointing as a beam of blue light descended near them. Vladdie raced to it and started floating up towards Caines cloaked ship. The cat swatted the weapon hard towards the ledge as Caine approached it and grabbed the man, hauling him to the beam. “Coming?” asked Caine as he stepped into the beam. “Raaow.” The cat replied, and followed after him.


	5. The Things We Do ....

Caine left his seat at the console of his small craft. Vladdie was rummaging through a compartment towards the back. “Man, I’m so hungry. Isn’t there any food in this thing?” he whined to Caine. Caine snorted in disgust, then shoved him back onto a bench seat. “Hey! What was that for?” he protested. Caine just glared at him, and Vladdie held up his hands in submission. “Ok, ok! Jeeze. No harm man!” Caine grabbed a small chest from a compartment in the wall and dumped it on the bench next to Vladdie.

“Hey ma, what are you doin?” he asked nervously as Caine opened the lid. “Eat,” he snapped, handing a bar of ration food to Vladdie. “Oh there’s no way I’m eating …..” Caines’ hand went to his Mauler in its holster. “Ok! Ok! Eating” Vladdie agreed, hastily tearing the wrapper from the bar. “Fere, eafing!” he muttered with his mouth full. Caine watched as Vladdie scoffed the bar and swallowed. “What man? I ate it! What are you staring at me like that for?” Vladdie complained. Caine waited, _‘four, three, two, one ……’_ he thought. Then Vladdie passed out.

_‘Raaow’._  Caine glanced over at the cat, then shrugged his shoulders. “Whines worse than a keeper on pollen.” He muttered. The cat considered him a moment, then went and curled up on the co-piolet chair. Turning his attention back to the chest beside Jupiters’ unconscious cousin, Caine took out a small scanner and passed it over the now snoring male. Half way down the body, the scanner beeped, and Caine groaned. Waving it over the front of Vladdie turned up no result, so Caine gritted his teeth and lay Vladdie face-down on the bench. “It had better not be ….” he growled as the scanner beeped quickly as it passed over Vladdies rump. “Oh, for void and death!”

Caine threw the scanner back into the chest and grabbed out a scalpel, gauze and a sprayer of Regenex. “Why is it always the arse!” he groaned to himself. In the cockpit, the cat sounded like it was going to barf up a hairball. “Laugh it up furball! I can always throw you out the hatch!” he growled at it. He heard claws scrape over the leather seat in response. “Oh, that’s low!” he growled, then muttered inaudibly to himself, turning back to Vladdie. The cousin snorted, drooled then farted, and Caine shook his head in disgust. Quickly, he pulled the back of Vladdies tracksuit pants far enough down to expose the flesh he was about to cut into.

There was a large red welt at the base of Vladdies right arse cheek. Caine picked up the scalpel and quickly cut a 2cm slit up the middle of the welt. The cousin jolted and moaned painfully but did not regain consciousness. Exchanging the scalpel of the gauze, Caine placed it over the bleeding cut and squeezed down hard. A chunk of metal popped out of the cut with a sick squelching noise. He wrapped it up in the gauze and grabbed the can, sprayed the wound and pulled the pants back up over the ghost white arse. Vladdie groaned and mumbled incoherently in his sleep and Caine hoped that this was the last time he had to do that. Again.

Caine halted the craft relatively close to the remnants of a collision between two galaxies that Jupiter’s earth astronomers called NGC 922. It was supposed to be a precursor to a black-hole, but Caine liked it just for the colours the dust and elements and matter created. Turning from the view screen, Caine placed the tracking device from Vladdies butt cheek into a palm-length cylinder. The device was still tracking their location. He inserted the cylinder into a small ejection port near his left thigh and hit a button to eject it safely out into space.

The cat next to him purred, and Caine looked at it questioningly. The cat merely blinked and continued watching him. “Orders are orders.” He told her, and she blinked at him again. He shrugged then turned back to the console and set a portal to Orion. It would take a while to get there and computer would alert him before the portal trip was completed. So he leant back into his chair and closed his eyes. Soon he would be back with Her Majesty. His arms around her, her scent filling his lungs. He sighed happily and allowed himself to drift into his memories of time spent with Jupiter.


	6. A Bolt of Blue

“You know, this is really starting to get annoying.” Caine huffed, dropping a pile of sheaves onto Stingers desk with a loud thunk. Stinger groaned. “Still no luck then?” he inquired. “Obviously.” stated Caine. “If we don’t find the runt soon, we’ll have go get another holding facility built. They’re both near max capacity. That many of him in one place, gives me the creeps.” Caine reported. “Question is,” Stinger said leaning back in his chair. “How many more are we going to find before the real thing turns up?” “Bigger question, is he still alive?” added Caine. “She’s not gonna be happy about this. Fuck! I’m not happy about this!”

Stinger nodded. Caines patience seemed to be being pushed to the limits. “I mean, of all the people in Jupiters family, why _him_?” Caine asked Stinger. The door behind the splices opened and Jupiter walked in followed closely by the kitten, scowling distractedly. “Your Majesty!” both men saluted, standing to attention quickly. “Huh? That bad is it? No, go then?” she asked, waving them to sit down again, and flicked off the sheave she was trying to make sense of.

“Another 14 found, in various degrees of form.” Stinger reported hesitantly, handing her the most recent report from Caine. “Form?” she repeated as she draped herself over Caines legs and scratched him under the chin. Stingers mouth quirked as Caine rumbled contentedly and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Most of the ones Caine picked up looked fairly similar to Vladdie, but none had the exact same scent, or DNA markers. A few had extra fingers or toes, one missing an arm and two, well….” Stinger hesitated. “Well…...?” prompted Jupiter. “Were female.” Caine finished.

“Wait, what??” spluttered Jupiter in amazement. “Female, as in _Female_ , female?” “Mm-hmm.” replied Caine. Jupiter burst out laughing. “Well that’s a new one! What are those idiots trying to prove?” “Majesty, I have no idea. But if we don’t find your _Real_ cousin soon ….” Stinger shrugged his shoulders sadly. “Yeah. I know.” She said sadly. “We’re still looking, Your Majesty. We’ll find him.” Caine rumbled into her neck as he breathed in her scent. “I know you will. I have faith in you.” She sighed. “But _I’m_ gonna murder him for this colossal fuck-up. Not even a ransom demand or anything.”

“You need to consider, Majesty, that someone may have already done that.” Stinger stated. “And or thrown him into the void.” added Caine. “True. But I think the people who took him may realize, that even though he is what he is,” she said, Stinger raising an eyebrow. “Is that people matter to me. All people. Whether they’re aliens, humans or splices. Everyone has a soul. Has equal value. Not just as employees or family, but as living, breathing beings.” “And that is one of the reasons we all love you, Your Majesty.” Caine told her. “You _see_ us.” Added Stinger, nodding.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that someone kidnapped Vladdie, and we have to get the dumb shit back. Again. Seriously, I’m like this close to disowning him.” Jupiter held up her thumb and pointer finger squished together at the tips. “Oh! Before I forget, here, take a look at this Stinger.” She said, flipping her sheave back on and passing it to her Chief of Security. “I got this a few minutes ago, so I thought I’d better have you look at it.” Both men sat up as Jupiter patched the sheave into the holo-projector and started the communiqué on the sheave.

A rough-looking young man sat, with his elbows on his knees, on an old 70’s looking metal framed outdoor chair with red plastic strips across it, one of which was dangling on the ground. Behind him, an old motor bike leant up against a broken-down bus that had a broken window and coloured lights draped over it. There were several sheets of roofing iron riveted to the sides of the bus. Alcohol cans and dirty mechanics tools littered the cracked dirty cement around his feet.

His black boots and pants looked like military or biker issue, and Jupiter would have mistaken him for someone from her planet, had it not been for the blue ether ebbing and flowing through the tribal tattoos on his chest and arms. That and the spear with the blue glowing blade he was holding in his fingerless-gloved hands.

Caine and the kitten both growled audibly at the mage. Stinger shifted his posture, barely noticeable to most people, but Caine noticed and quietened. The kitten, however, arched its back and backed away from its view of the screen, hissing and spitting.

The rose tattoo in the middle of the mages chest flashed brilliant blue, highlighting the axe dagger and rapier that pierced the heart around the rose. The rose faded and Jupiter watched the light travel through the swirls and curves on his chest travel up to his shoulders then down to the rose shield tattoo on each of the mages upper arms. The light swirled out and around his arms, into the spear and back out again. The whole light movement only took seconds, but Jupiter had to shake her head to clear it.

The mage slowly rotated the spear in his hand as he kept looking dead-pan at the device recording the communiqué. A gentle breeze wafted past, rocking the empty cans and his short messy brown hair. Jupiter couldn’t decide what she thought of him and was about to turn off the recording when he sat back, and put one heavy boot on the other knee and rested the spear across his lap.

“I’m here. I have him. Come find me.” Was all the mage said as he turned the spear upright and shot a bolt of blue light into the sky. He smirked, and the screen went blank.  “Stinger?” asked Jupiter hesitantly. “Already on it, Majesty.” He replied as his fingers flew over the controls on his security console. “We’ll find him, Your Majesty.” Caine growled in anticipation. “And this time, I’m gonna tear him limb from limb.”

 


End file.
